What do you Want to Achieve & By When do You Want to Achieve it?

Cutting to the Chase:

If you’d like an overview of clients and expertise click this link to the Expertise page

 

Here’s what I do –

1st Working with your Executive and Leadership Groups I’ll Open Your Eyes to Change: By helping your organisation become aware of what is shifting right now and what future change in your industry could occur;

2nd I’ll Guide Your Decision Making: By taking your key team through a process for defining what you need to do in order to prepare for the emerging future both to mitigate risk and prepare to grasp the opportunities;

3rd I’ll Help Facilitate the Forward Game Plan: It will be a tailored engagement based on your desires and capabilities. You’ll end up with a specific and deliberate plan for action that sets a clear desired end target, the actions you’ll take and how you’ll know whether you are progressing as planned.

Check out the Client Portfolio Page to see the multidisciplinary clients I’ve worked with. You’ll find that this means you’ll access exceptional experience to your organisation’s advantage.

 

If you need to become more aware of change, mitigate risks and develop an effective path forward then contact me today. But please note – it’s depth you’ll find, not sugar hits and pseudo corporate jargon! I’m interested in your organisation taking action for a future you want to create, starting now. All you have to do is contact me today to get started

 

A quick update: the previous ‘Free Articles and Papers‘ section is now called ‘The Future Of…‘ with articles moved under a theme such as ‘water’ or ‘people’ or ‘technology’ and so on. Some articles will also appear in multiple locations given the broad reach of some topics. They’ll all still be there and they are all still free!

Looking Up Feeling Good is a business that helps you to move towards Getting Your Future Right. If this is your first visit, below you’ll find an overview of where to look to find the information you need; and if you are a return visitor, welcome back:

Strategic Thinking: If you want ideas to kick start strategic thinking, go to The Future Of tab above, where you’ll find a whole series of free downloadable papers and thought starters on a range of topics. That might be sufficient for your needs. If you want something customised for your organisation’s specific needs or alternatively if you have any questions about the ideas in the articles and ways to use them in your business by all means contact us

Media Coverage: If you are looking for some of the media on topics where Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber has presented or provided comment, go to the Free Articles tab and you’ll see them listed in the first part of that section. If you are a journalist or media organisation looking for a comment about ‘the future’ please contact me directly via email or my ‘roving landline’ if you need an immediate comment for a story on the day

Facilitation, Consulting & Speaking Requirements: If you are looking to find a futurist for a key note speaker or require a consultant to assist you with Facilitation, Innovation, Strategy or Futures work then you’ll probably want to talk to us first.If you’re wanting to enhance your organisational strategy, we’d be more than happy to provide you with an obligation free, no cost one hour consultation to discuss your needs, to determine if we are the best ones to assist you and to find out exactly what you are wanting to achieve, or put you in contact with someone better suited. Call us on 03 96 444 588

Client Feedback: Interested in reading what others have gained or said about our services? Go to the Great Client Feedback tab and find out for yourself the quality of the types of results of using our skills in your business

Products & Services: Whether you’re thinking about training, skills development, external sources of Environmental Scanning or more, you’ll find most of what you need listed in either the Products or Services tabs. These fully customisable sessions and products are aimed at delivering to you an increased strategic awareness capability and have been used successfully in almost all industry sectors and by clients of varying sizes. Call us if you have any questions on 613 96 444 588 or email us here

Areas of Latest Focus and upcoming Events: If you’re interested in finding out what specific projects have our attention at the moment, or want to know some of the latest events on the horizon that we feel worthy of knowing more about, check out the Events tab or the Latest Focus tab

Understanding the Role of Feedback

Feedback plays an important role in the success of organisations of all sizes and can help us determine how our efforts are producing desired results or may need to be adjusted to achieve the goals we want.

Traditional forms of feedback are usually ‘echoes from the past’, just like trend spotting is nothing more than identifying things that are already happening, rather than things that could happen. We would like you to consider that an ‘echo from the future’ can be even more valuable feedback which is why businesses come to us to help them consider what their future might look like.

‘Getting Your Future Right’ ™

Check the following questions and see if they fit the kind you want an answer to. If so, we can probably help you. I have an extensive network of content experts and specialists, an am able to put you in the right direction with someone who can assist

“What does the future hold for our Industry and what should do about it?”

“How do we ensure we get the type of future we want?”

“Where should we be looking to maximise our opportunities and minimise our potential risks?”

“How can we build our organisation’s capacity for Innovation to ensure continued success?”

“Is it possible to get a jump on our major competitors?”

If you’ve ever asked yourself those questions or ones like them then we have a sense for what you want to achieve

On this site you will find enough information to be able to make the kind of smart decision that will deliver what you want and greatly benefit your business. And you’ll still probably want to talk to us – we’d be happy to hear from you and to answer those questions you have about what you need from us.

And YOU have to take action and MAKE THE CALL today!

It is likely you are an organisation looking to answer some key questions for your future. You may have a changing marketplace, emerging supply chain issues or you may be witnessing a shift away from your traditional products and to alternative competitor offerings. You may be aware of managerial challenges to available employee numbers or sense that ‘times are changing’ and want to know what those changes mean for you.

Potentially your senior management group or business unit has grappled with the idea of change and has explored some strategic plays and thinking – but the choices are uncertain. This level of uncertainty needs addressing because ‘we had good intentions’is not a satisfactory response to the questionWhat went wrong?And potentially, your business is not yet satisfied with the answers it has generated to the strategic questions it is trying to answer.

For Looking Up Feeling Good the various issues (whatever they may be) indicate opportunities for growth and possibilities for collapse. None of our clients have considered ‘collapse’ an option and we doubt you do either, which is why you are here.

Companies like yours come to us for a number of reasons and those reasons tend to fall into two main areas:

1. Your company is aware that the old way of doing business and textbook 101 answers are no longer providing the desired level of ‘payback’ to the organisation and you are being (proactive)at creating the future you want

and also common –

2. Your company has reached a crisis point and is looking to rescue itself (reactive)

So you know we can help. On these pages you’ll see some of the services we make available to you, from strategy development, innovation processes, various training sessions and presentations to high end strategic information services. And at the end of the day, I deliver the outcome: ‘Getting Your Future Right’ ™ So – ask away!

Send us an email or call the Sandringham Office: 613 96 444 588

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Organisations should know when to stop being one of the pack…

Preparing for the Upswing & a Change in Direction

Jul 20, 2013

From an organisational perspective it is pretty common for senior managers to spend significant energy considering when to upgrade plant and equipment, be it machinery, vehicles or IT infrastructure. The upgrades can occur on the run (in response to a surge in demand for instance), as a result of necessity (say as a result of…

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Why your Race for Talent should be a ‘Slow’ one

Jul 7, 2013

If you’ve seen me speak before you already know I take a provocative stance when it comes to areas like personnel development, training and recruitment. Clients also know that once we’ve opened the door to thinking differently, they’re guided through some significant ‘of course’ moments in terms of how they approach developing their people and…

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Has The Age Editor called for the wrong resignation

Jun 23, 2013

I flag from the outset that I haven’t been a regular readers of newspapers for almost a decade, only slightly less than my giving up on mainstream TV News shows. As such you should take this with a grain of salt, coming as it does from someone who reads maybe a paper a week and…

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Renewable Energy Technology faces same challenges as new carbon tech – fact or fallacy claims

Jun 16, 2013

In the search for fuels and energy sources that act as a replacement to Oil, there’s much hype and claims that need to be tested. In much the same as claims about carbon capture technology being built onto existing coal fired power stations seem to lack both viability and credibility (in my view), the same…

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A Counter to Doomsayers of Manufacturing in Australia

Jun 3, 2013

Every day people in positions of ‘opinion authority’ make choices about what ‘opinions’ they will offer on a whole array of subjects. And it would be fair to say that over the past five years or so, many of those ‘opinion authorities’ have been significantly negative on Australia’s manufacturing sector. There’s no doubt that the…

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Emerging Consumers: Fact or Fiction?

May 29, 2013

As a futurist spending much of my time assessing emerging developments and their implications across an array of industry sectors, I am frequently asked for a view on ‘consumer trends’. Common questions are ‘what will consumers want in the future?’ ‘Does our product (service) have a place?’ ‘What is driving consumer behaviour?’ ‘How can we…

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The Trucking Industry is facing a crisis. It needs to Act. NOW

May 27, 2013

The Trucking Industry, as a key part of the wider Supply Chain and Logistics Industry is coming to the end of an era, right at the time when it should be being refreshed. Put simply, there just aren’t enough drivers for trucks, and to date, attempts to recruit more drivers have been less that what…

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Why does Facebook think it’s okay to treat Violence against women as acceptable?

May 21, 2013

In case you haven’t had time to keep up with these events, here’s a quick overview of the Everyday Sexism project’s attempts to hold FaceBook to account for its explicit support of sexual violence against women as portrayed in the many permitted Facebook pages that promote rape, rape culture, and violence against women. Facebook appears…

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How the ‘Perfect Plan’ can lead you to Disaster

May 13, 2013

Today I have a bee in my bonnet, so please look away if my frankness might bother you. In the last couple of days I’ve had yet another conversation with a Local Council planning team manager about Strategic Planning for their Council that bothered me a great deal. What really has me bothered is that…

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Micro Drones & Your Privacy

Apr 28, 2013

Whilst many people have heard about Drones in terms of their military applications, the concept of micro drones and their use in civilian settings is not quite so well known. It appears that the surveillance capability that technologies like Drones provide, are edging their way into more social environments. That may or may not be…

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